Panflute

We went into our first full lockdown today. Merry Christmas.

It expired

Can't decide if I'm more annoyed by the people completely ignoring corona guidelines or the ones who secretly film it so they can narc on them for internet coolpoints.

As I have said earlier, all this virus does is revert countries to their basic essence. Holland has reverted to finding compromises for everything (polder model) The US has reverted to its usual dose of crazy paired with societal division France has reverted to its leader getting to roleplay as a firm Napoleonic statesman over the backs of his countrymen Italy and Spain have reverted to criticizing us for 'mishandling' the crisis and then asking us for free hand-outs as the bodies pile up and their entire economies inevitably collapse at the slightest setback It's depressing.

It's pretty fucked now. We have had rising infection rates, but people have pretty much gone into panic mode, where like 3 days after new measures, everyone starts calling for more measures even though it's impossible to notice the effect of the original measures within that timespan. If we were to go into full lockdown, it would be the first time this happens in the country, as the previous 'lockdown' and the current one have both been partial lockdowns, where much of the measures were based on advice rather than strict legislation. Still, I don't think it will ever be in countries like France and Italy where you basically have martial law. However, as it looks now, it seems as if the full lockdown is not being considered by our government, which, to its credit, doesn't often cave to the pressure of taking extra measures just because people are panicking. The issue with a full lockdown now is that it would just postpone the problem a few months at best, and wreck tons of businesses in the process. The past months have shown that our testing has not proven adequate enough to be able to handle subsequent infections locally, so this would mean having to lock the country down periodically until there is a vaccine, which is obviously bonkers. I dunno about this shit anymore. When I see people out there walking by themselves in parks while wearing mouth masks, I get the idea that a lot of this is just about giving ourselves the illusion that we're able to control the virus.

We might go into full lockdown as well seeing as journos have been pushing for it in the past weeks by aSkiNg QuEsTiOnS. Critics say such a measure will only be effective if it is kept up for months, possibly until the spring. Fun times ahead in any case.

The first Borat was one of those comedy movies where all the funny stuff was in the trailer. Can't imagine the new one to be much better as we've already seen the whole 'haha Americans are stupid' shtick played out to death in the Bush era.

I believe we will see it, but I also think future instalments of Fallout and Elder Scrolls will have vastly different business models that focus heavily on microtransactions (thinly veiled or not).

To a degree. Multiple people have seen ads advertising ethnic dating sites specifically on this website alone, so it has to be something to do with the way ads are run here as well.

Our minister of justice saw fit to call everyone who didn't comply with corona rules lowlifes and then had a wedding with like a hundred guests where he hugged and shook hands with everyone. There is tons of photographic evidence of this. Take a wild guess as to whether he got fined and/or was relieved of his responsibilities.

They aren't, everybody gets those ads.

I now use Opera GX which is basically Opera but with sleeker design. It has an inbuilt VPN which is rather rudimentary but still functional, as well as a forced dark mode for every website and compatibility with all Chrome etensions. It's also takes a lot less juice to run than some other browsers. Others I've tried: - Chrome: prefer not to use it because fuck Google - Firefox: was a nice browser until it became the biggest resource hog on the market - Yandex: a nice Chrome-based browser with some interesting features, but I stopped using it after it automatically set every page to German for some reason

Just did a favorites list, as there's no real way to objectively rank games. In no particular order: Mass Effect trilogy Treating it as one game as I can't really pick a favorite, and it's all part of a continuous story anyway. This was just an excellent combination of some of the best storytelling in video game history, as well as seriously great gameplay to go along with it. You really develop a bond with the supporting characters, and some of the choices you have to make are just heartbreaking. The in-game universe (haha) they created and its lore are just so deep and mysterious for an original IP. Honestly one of the best science fiction universes out there. Elder Scrolls Online It's an MMO and therefore by definition plagued by continuous issues regarding performance, balance, etc. But even with all that, there's just something magical about having a fully voice-acted rendition of Tamriel that you can share with your friends. I've barely touched the single player games after getting hooked on ESO, and even after playing it non-stop for years, there's always new stuff to discover. I'm focusing on PVP during the current patch and it's a real blast. As said, it's far from perfect, but as my most-played game of all time, it deserves a place on the list. Life is Strange: Before the Storm While I enjoyed the original Life is Strange game, I was still very much on the fence about its writing. Dialogue seemed awkward, morally grey characters were few and inbetween, and the writers just tried to shoehorn as many controversial topics into each episode as possible. Its prequel, Before the Storm, is where this series really shines. It was created and written by a different (American) developer, and you can really notice how much more grounded the dialogue and characters feel. Much more attention is given to the emotional development of/between the characters, and the characters themselves feel a lot more ambiguous and multifaceted than in the original. At its core it is a teen drama, but the way in which it deals with relatable topics such as losing a lost one, losing touch with old friends, sudden infatuation with someone you've just met, and trying to make things work with people you don't necessarily like -- it was just surprising to me how maturely those were handled in a video game. If I have one complaint, it's that it's written so differently from the original that it becomes hard to see the games as a continuous story. If you can cope with the inherent awkwardness of video game storytelling, it's definitely something that'll have an impact on you one way or the other. Oh, and the soundtrack is second to none. Mario Kart Wii By now there's more balanced, more technically refined karting games out there, but it's still such a joy to go back to Mario Kart Wii. To me, it was the first game in the series that really hit the nail on the head, offering plenty of tracks, unlockables and options. I also liked that they switched out the annoying mini-boost system of MK64 and MKDD for a simpler, less intrusive system. While the item distribution could get out of hand at times, I also feel like MKW was a very skill-based game, and actually sitting down and learning how to tackle each track really paid off in terms of performance. Just avoid the motion controls. Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Immortal 2D platformer. A lot of the reason I like this game is pure nostalgia, but it actually holds up quite well for a game that's older than some of our members. It was slower-paced, a bit less ADHD than its predecessor, while also having some great level design and aesthetics. Multiplayer was pretty fun as well, and with a userfriendly level editor, there's an infinite supply of content. STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl It's one of those games that's just buggy and broken as hell but has too much charm to ignore. The atmosphere of this game was just through the roof, perfectly capturing what a post-apocalyptic Eastern Europe would feel like. How it subtly introduced the supernatural aspect also made it a truly frightening game in places. There's just a charm about this game that was not present in the sequels, nor in games that take place in similar settings, like Metro. How such a buggy and silly game could be so immersive is a testament to how great it was. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Kind of an obligatory inclusion on 'best of/favorite' lists, but it's justified. I played Ocarina of Time shortly after it was originally released, and the game just blew my mind. Super Mario 64 had already done the pioneering work by providing a fully 3D-rendered sandboxy world, but Ocarina of Time enriched it with the RPG and storytelling elements to really make the world come to life. In a way, this was my first true 3D sandbox experience. The actual game design was solid as could be, and I don't think Nintendo could've done a better job transitioning Zelda to a 3D environment. Paper Mario One of my first proper experiences with an RPG and it was amazing. The writing was great, the gameplay struck the right balance between intuitivity and depth, and the whole paper/storybook design was just so charming. I still need to go back and replay this sometime, as the 2/3 times I've completed it have all been a blast. Crysis Back in the day it was often dismissed as a 'glorified tech demo', and while it was and still is an amazing technical feat, the gameplay has always been way underrated. It offered an amazing 'limited sand box', in which you followed a relatively linear path, but the game still offered you tons of options to tackle challenges in whichever way you saw fit. With the addition of mild 'superpowers' such as invisibility and extra strength, it made for a perfect playground to just fuck up enemies in countless different ways. It was a spiritual successor to Far Cry, and it is telling that Ubisoft arguably didn't get on this level with their attempts at making Far Cry sequels until FC5. A game that deserves to be remembered for more than just its fancy graphics. American Truck Simulator Sometimes I just need to relax, okay?

Finished Life is Strange 2, which I'd gotten a few months ago on Steam. (MINOR SPOILERS) Honestly disappointing. The writing ranged from decent to very poor. Especially the political commentary seemed shoehorned. You can really tell that the main writers are Europeans with a limited understanding of American culture (sovereign citizens working together with cops?!). The entire premise of the game does not make much sense either. Without giving away too much, for the entire game I kept thinking "Wait, why are we running? This is just going to make things worse." It was interesting to see the road trip formula play out. It's a big contrast with the smalltown/high school setting of the original arc, but it also made it obvious why the latter worked better. Due to the surroundings constantly changing, there's very little going on in terms of character bonding and emotional development. That a chapter that sorts of mimicks the 'staying in one place' concept is by far the most enjoyable episode of the game is very telling. In the end there was enough good stuff in the game to enjoy a single playthrough, but honestly it doesn't hold a candle to the original game (which had its own share of issues), let alone the prequel to the original.